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LWV to Sussex: Amend buffer regs

January 14, 2022

For reasons thoroughly explained by Delaware Center for the Inland Bays Executive Director Chris Bason in his Jan. 7 Letter to the Editor, the League of Women Voters of Sussex County urgently requests that Sussex County Council revise Ordinance No. 21-10 with the following four amendments Director Bason outlined to revitalize the effort to best protect our waterways:

1. Increase buffer width of perennial non-tidal rivers and streams from 50 to 100 feet to be consistent with science-based recommendations for minimum buffer width

2. Remove allowance of non-forest meadow from the Resource Buffer Standards Section 10.D and require the maintenance of existing forest and replanting of non-forested areas with trees and shrubs to specific densities

3. Remove in its entirety Section G., the Resource Buffer Options

4. Add a section on specific enforcement provisions and penalties for noncompliance.

With the inclusion of the revisions outlined and subsequent passage of this ordinance, Sussex County Council will pave the way to significantly reversing the decades of environmental neglect, resulting in the abysmal water quality that has so profoundly affected our inland waterways, fish and wildlife habitat, and all Sussex's residents today. We thank Sussex County Council members in advance for serving the best interests of not only their current constituents, but for Sussex's future generations as well.

The board of the League of Women Voters of Sussex County, Del.

Janet Ambrose
Marge LaFond
Jane Lord
Martha Rothenberg
Pat Newcomb
Rain Tyler
Jan Willis
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